Since I write Medical Romance I thought I would share my Top Ten favourite television/movie doctors. It’s kind of impossible for me to pick only 10 of my own heroes and heroines, so I thought I would choose my favourite on-screen doctors. 1. Derek Shepherd-Grey’s Anatomy. I know, you either love him or hate him (obviously I was in the love him camp). I was watching Grey’s Anatomy when the Fast Track for Harlequin Medical’s opened up in 2011. So Derek and Meredith’s relationship certainly sparked my love for Medical Romance. 2. Meredith Grey-Grey’s Anatomy. I like her better now than I did in the beginning, but I did like her drive and her passion for medicine. She’s a lot stronger now, but still a bit cold, but it’s her strong drive, her love of her job I often take into my own heroines. 3. Michaela Quinn-Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. I like her because I love frontier type of shows and she was pretty strong too. Also, there’s a special place in my heart for her because it was the last television show I got to watch with my Nanny before she passed away. She only got to see season…

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors as a reader you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Nichole Severn! Writes: Books like MIDNIGHT ABDUCTION, which is mind-twisting suspense mixed with bullet-proof romance set in Tennessee and features a heroine and hero who will stop at nothing to bring home a missing child. About: 30-something romantic suspense author seeks a reader who enjoys: edge-of-your-seat danger, strong heroines and the heroes who dare challenge them, and unforgettable romance. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: Wants to experience the thrill of solving a missing persons case Cheers for out-of-the-box happy-ever-afters Appreciates an ensemble cast of FBI experts, including a quirky six-year-old obsessed with mystery novels Equally enjoys danger and passion, frequently in the same scene What to expect if we’re compatible: Thrilling romantic suspense you won’t want to put down Paranoia and suspicion of every weird sound in your house and the people around you Memorable romance and tension-breaking inside jokes A hazardous dependence on romantic suspense when you join the Addicted to Danger FB group Exclusive content,…

by Senior Reviewer Debbie Wiley With the long days of quarantine both behind and still in front of us, if you’re like me you’re tired of hearing nothing in the news but gloom and doom. Luckily for us as readers, we have a great selection of cozy mysteries to curl up with and take our minds off seeing only the people we’ve been quarantined with. So, sit back, pretend it’s a cold day inside by the fire where staying inside is fun, and let’s look at a couple great books to choose from! Amanda Flower is one of my go-to cozy mystery authors and what could be better than a novella including an appearance by Jethro, the support pig? In BOTCHED BUTTERSCOTCH, a Mother’s Day fundraiser goes awry and now Bailey King is determined to uncover a thief. Amanda Flower offers up just the kind of heartwarming mystery we need, as BOTCHED BUTTERSCOTCH showcases Abigail’s Farm, a program opening up in the Amish community to help women recovering from substance abuse. We have a lot of fun bantering the wedding that isn’t even an engagement yet and yes, we have a great Jethro scene!  SIX CLOVES UNDER by Gin Jones features…

Jennifer: What inspired you to write your new release, HELLO, SUMMER?   Mary Kay: A couple years ago I read an article in my hometown newspaper, The Tampa Bay Times, about the area’s long-time conservative Republican Congressman, who’d just passed away from cancer. At the Congressman’s funeral, his son gave a eulogy that mentioned his father’s “secret first family”–the Congressman’s first wife and his children with him, with whom he’d had no contact for decades. It was a stunning moment that sparked a family feud played out in headlines around the country. When I went looking for a juicy story for my newspaper reporter protagonist Conley to dig into, that story immediately came to mind. Of course, my fictional Congressman dies in a mysterious late-night accident on a remote country road, and there are lots of other differences, but that story kept me up at night, wondering “what if?”  Why does Sarah “Conley” Hawkins choose to return to her hometown? She doesn’t have any alternatives. She’s quit her job as a reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, broken up with her boyfriend and given up her apartment–all in anticipation of a new job she’s accepted with a new digital-only investigative publication in…

1–What’s the name of your latest release?  Ruthless Pride 2–What is it about?  Ooh, it’s like Dynasty meets. . . well, what’s the hottest show you can think of? That. It’s Dynasty meets that. 🙂 Fifteen years ago, hedge fund owner Vernon Lowell disappeared with millions of his clients’ money, leaving his son, Joshua Lowell, to clean up the pieces of their family and the financially devastated clients. Joshua has done it, but now determined reporter Sophie Armstrong intends to dredge up his dark past with an article, along with rumors of a secret child. He will do anything to protect his family from pain and the possible ruin of the company he’s worked so hard to save. But he didn’t count on battling his fierce desire for her as well. 3–What word best describes your heroine?  Determined and independent.  4–What makes your hero irresistible?  He’s incredibly loyal and self-sacrificing. And an artist. A repressed one, but still. Oh, and did I mention he’s hot? A friend of mine calls him Stern Daddy Blake Carrington. LOL! 5–Who are the people your main characters turn to when they need help?  Joshua is the person his family and employees look to for…

What is a whispering dress? Venture inside the bridal boutique of my heroine, Fran Delaney, and you’ll find out. Fran finds vintage wedding dresses, gets to know their histories, then matches them to modern-day brides, helping them to transform their lives. In that sense, her dresses ‘whisper’ their secrets and wisdoms to whoever wears them next. I was inspired to write The Second Chance Boutique while working for the Victoria & Albert Museum, researching their extraordinary collection of historic wedding dresses. It wasn’t just the dresses that fascinated me, but the personal stories behind them. From demure to ultimate glamour, from the courtesan’s sack-back gown to the ever-changing Victorian silhouette, the thirties to the sixties to the nineties, these dresses were as varied in character as the women who wore them – and it struck me that the spirit of these women seemed very much present, embodied in the fabric and stitches. The idea of these dresses stayed with me until, not long after my own wedding, I decided I simply had to write a romance based around them. So here are some of the ones that inspired me: The Scandalous One This dramatic Norman Hartnell gown was worn by…

My newest YA fantasy novel, Storybound, is about a girl, Edie Keller, who moves to the city where her favorite books are set (in this case Austin, TX) and when she walks through the doors of BookPeople, she walks into the world of those books. It’s all real. The good guys, the bad guys, the book boyfriend she’s been in love with forever. The book boyfriend who dies at the end of the last book. .  . Except he isn’t dead. Not yet anyway. And if she plays her cards right, she just might be able to save his life. Before I get to the actual Title Challenge, I have a funny story to share. I misunderstood the rules for this challenge when I read them. I thought I needed to describe my book using only anagrams of my book title. Which—I’ve gotta say—is a lot harder than the actual challenge. So first, I want to share my anagram solution: Broody book boy toy snubs nutsy nobody! Okay, okay. . . I had to add in an extra s in ‘snubs’ … still, I think I did pretty good! Though, my teenage daughter rolled her eyes and said, “Mom! Please….

Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Leslie and congrats on your debut! Please tell us about yourself and your new book, FRACTURED TIDE. Thanks for having me! FRACTURED TIDE is the story of an ill-fated scuba charter that lands the protagonist–master diver Sia–on a mysterious, time-bending island. The situation is complicated by one of the other survivors, her seven-year-old brother, a kid who needs a lot of hand-holding. Then there’s the hot guy who’s marooned there with her. . . and his ex-girlfriend. Yeah, it gets complicated. When they find a flooded sinkhole in the middle of the island, Sia realizes she has to go down into the darkness to help them discover the secrets of the island and find a way home. When I started this story, I was inspired by my diving trips, but I also dug into my experiences as a volunteer teacher at the Atlanta Women’s prison. On my first day in the classroom, I was holding onto a lot of stereotypes about prisoners (they’re pretty much all wrong). TV and movies paint the incarcerated parent as either totally evil or completely innocent. I wanted to tell a more realistic story, so I gave Sia a positive but…

CHAPTER FOUR EXCERPT OF SOPHIE JORDAN’S THE VIRGIN AND THE ROGUE Something was not right. All throughout dinner the sensation, the aching discomfort, only grew. Following dinner, Charlotte excused herself and managed to make it to her bedchamber, where she hastily shed her clothes as though they burned her skin and climbed into bed. It was bad. Terrible. The queasiness was unlike any other time. The symptoms were different. More . . . pronounced. She curled into a ball and dragged the pillow between her legs, hugging it tightly. Usually she endured the twinges of pain until they passed. The slight cramping that was improved by hot water bottles and Nora’s tonic. She would keep to bed for twelve hours until it passed. This was not like that. This did not feel in any way endurable. She was vaguely aware of her bedchamber door opening and closing and footsteps approaching her bed. She inhaled and exhaled in slow, even drags of air, her fingers digging into the soft linen pillowcase. Her sisters’ voices carried to her ears. Even in her current condition, there was no mistaking the agitation in Marian’s voice floating above her. “What did you do, Nora? She…

Living in Ireland, I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by history at almost every turn. Whether it’s the ruins of a keep or the bell towers of one of many, many churches (there are over 4,500 in the Republic of Ireland and we’re a very small island), there’s always something there. Right where I live, there’s a beautiful estate called Emo House & Parklands. It is a beautiful example of Georgian architecture built by the famous James Gandon in 1790, for the first Earl of Portarlington, although construction wasn’t finished until 1860 by the third Earl of Portarlington. Ireland has a rich and sometimes troubled history, and this house lived through it all, though it wasn’t lived in until it was bought by Major Cholmeley Harrison, who lived there until his death at aged 99 in July 2008. The Major gifted the house and its grounds to Ireland and it’s now run by the Office of Public Works and enjoyed by thousands of visitors. One of whom is usually me! Now, I read absolutely everything I could get my hands on from a very young age, but by the time I was in my late teens I had read my…